enter into the spirit of his office, to be devout, earnest, inspired by aspirations after the divine and Godlike, filled with an enthusiastic admiration of the virtue he must inculcate, manifesting something like a felt consciousness of possessing or advancing toward it himself-how impossible must it be for him to be all this, or even to simulate it, on one day in seven, if during the other six he is living an unspiritual, careless ignoble life-the life, as the French woman expresses it, of "a vulgar and ordinary" man!-Christian Weekly.

An Austrian

EGYPTIAN BRICKS. savant is said to have discovered, by means of a microscope, in a stone taken from the pyramid of Dashur, many interesting particulars connected with the life of the ancient Egyptians. The brick itself is made of the mud of the Nile, chopped straw, and sand, thus confirming what the Bible and Herodotus have handed down to us as to the Egyptian method of brick-making. Besides these materials, the microscope has brought other things to light-the debris of river shells, of fish, and of insects; seeds of wild and cultivated flowers, of corn and barley, the field pea, and the common flax, cultivated probably for both food and texile purposes, and the radish, with many others known to science.

POWER OF BEAUTY. Lord Shafts

bury, recently related an incident illustrating the effect of womanly grace and purity on the roughest natures. In one of the worst parts of London, he said, there was an institution he visited. In one room he found about thirty-five men listening to the teachings of the daughter of a small shopkeeper in the neighborhood. She was one of the prettiest

women he ever saw in his life. He noticed that there was no one present but the young woman with these rough men, and he said to the superintendent, "Are you not afraid to leave my dear little friend alone with all those men?" He replied, "I am." "Then why don't you go to her?" "You mistake my fear. I am not afraid of their doing her any harm. They love her so much that they would lick the ground on which she walks, but I am afraid some person may step in, and, not being under authority, or knowing the manners of the place, may say something impertinent to her, and if he did he would not leave the place alive."

A GOOD THOUGHT FOR POOR MEN. Somebody asks me how I make so mooch money, and I says to him: My frendt, I work hardt, I spend leedle; I plan carefully. What you shmoke and drink pays my taxes. What time you lose builds my fences and shingles my houses." " From CARL DUNDER, in Detroit Free Press.

THERE was an old preacher who told some boys of the Bible lesson he was going to read in the morning. The boys finding the place glued together the connecting pages. The next morning he read on the bottom of one page: "When Noah was one hundred and twenty years old, he took unto himself a wife, who was

-then turning the page--"140 cubits long, 40 cubits wide, built of gopher wood, and covered with pitch inside and out." He was naturally puzzled at this. He read it again, verified it, and then said: " My friends this is the first time I ever met this in the Bible, but I accept it as an evidence of the assertion that we are fearfully and wonderfully made."

GOOD character is above all things

else

SEEK not proud riches, but such as thou may get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly. Lord Bacon.

THE passing years drink a portion of the light from our cheeks, as birds that drink at lakes leave their footprints on the margin.

PRINCES are like heavenly bodies, which cause good and evil times, and which have much veneration, but no rest.-Lord Bacon.

CHILDHOOD. The first link in a chain that has no end; charge that link with the Gospel Spirit and it shall pass thence from link to link, a divine current of purity and peace.

CONTENTMENT is the truest riches, and covetousness the greatest poverty. He is not rich that has much, but he that has enough. That man is poor that covets more, and yet wants a heart to enjoy what he already has.

A PLEASANT, cheerful wife is a rainbow set in the sky, when her hus

band's mind is tossed with storms and tempests; but a dissatisfied and fretful wife, in the hour of trouble, is like one of those fiends who delight to torture lost spirits.

THE foundation of domestic happiness is faith in the virtue of woman. The foundation of political happiness is faith in the integrity of man. foundation of all happiness is faith in the goodness, the righteousness, and the love of God.

the mercy

The

like Bethlehem's star to the bewildered shepherds.

IN LIGHTER VEIN.

WHY is a fool like a needle? He has an eye, but he has got no head; and you can't see his point.

CAN a general who has gained a victory in the night be properly said to have won the day?

Ir is a bad sign to see a man with his bat off at midnight, explaining the theory and principles of true democracy to a lamp-post.

THE entire assets of a recent bankrupt were nine children. The creditors acted magnanimously, and allowed him to keep them.

THE old lady who mended her husband's trousers with a potatoe patch is now smoothing her hair with

the comb of a rooster.

A WAG being asked the name of the inventor of butter stamps, replied that it was probably Cadmus, as he first brought letters into Greece.

A MINISTER, putting his hand upon a young urchin's shoulder, exclaimed, My son, I believe the devil has got hold of you." "I believe he has too," was the reply.

AN Irishman who had blistered his fingers by endeavoring to draw on a pair of boots, exclaimed, "By St. Patrick! I believe I shall niver git thim on till I wear them a day or

two.

"IT is very difficult to live," said a widow, with seven girls, all in genteel poverty. "You must husband your time," said a sage friend. “I'd rather husband some of my daughters," answered the poor lady.

OFFICE OF MANFORD'S MAGA

ZINE.

Chicago, Ill., No. 774 W. Van Buren St., to which all letters should be addressed, for the present.

REV. T. H. TABOR, Editor and Publisher.

THE MAGAZINE.

TERMS OF THE MAGAZINE are the same as usual, $1.50 per annum. NO DISCONTINUANCES until all arrearages are settled.

LONGING FOR UNIVERSALISM.

Canon Farrar says in his preface to Eternal Hope-that" every man must long rith all his heart that this belief (Universalism) were true; and thousands have re-, peated with intense yearning the famous lines of the poet of In Memoriam"Oh yet we trust that somehow good Shall be the final end of ill, To pangs of nature, sins of will, Defects of doubt, and taints of blood; That nothing walks with aimless feet; That not one life shall be destroyed, Or cast as rubbish in the void, When God hath made the pile complete."

THE OPPOSITE DESTINY.

Of the opposite destiny, this writer says, in the same connection:" How any man with a heart of pity in him-any man who has the faculty of imagination in even the lowest degree developed-can contemplate the present condition of countless multitudes of the dead and the living viewed in the light of such opinions; how he can at all reconcile them either with all that he learns of God and of Christ in Scripture and by inward ex

perience,-how-as he walks the streets and witnesses the life of our great cities -he can enjoy in this world one moment of happiness however deeply he may be convinced of his own individual salvation -is more than I can understand."

WATCHFULNESS NEEDED.

Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die. Rev. 3: 2.

Watchfulness is a very important duty, when considered by itself, but its importance is greatly increased by the value of the interest to be watched. And still more increased, by a knowledge of the consequences that will be sure to follow, if watchfulness is neglected.

The careful physician, never leaves his patient to careless or neglectful hands, in the crisis of disease. Many a time we have seen the man of science not only insist upon taking the place of a watcher himself-but he sat with his fingers upon the pulse of the patient, watching the ebb and flow of the tide of life, with the deepest anxiety-for the continuation of life depended upon constant watchfulness, and prompt action.

And we can think of no sadder words uttered by our Lord, in his intercourse with his disciples, than those addressed to them in the garden, the night of the betrayal; when he asked them-"Could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptatation."

And what he asks of us individually now, is that we shall be watchful and earnest in our efforts to help his cause

The danger is imminent-the watchfulness and help are not only needed, but greatly needed now at once-immediately. And Jesus shows his interest in the weak and dying, by making this requirement. He does not say that where a congregation of worshipers is large, fashionable and wealthy, that there he will be as a help-but "where two or three are assembled in my name, there am I in the midst of them." And whatever he may do, he will not overlook the weak

nor neglect the dying.

And does not the prophet require attention to such, when he says: "Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not-behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you."

The weak ones who are ready to die, and are therefore in great need of watchfulness and help, are many. And if the important requirement concerning them, was faithfully obeyed, the course of Christ would advance much faster than it does now. A large part of the need of a State Missionary, is to look after and help the weak rural parishes. And the winter season is the best time for doing this important work; for then the farming community can be reached, if at all— and the farming community must be reached, if our weak country parishes are to be strengthened and saved.

We do not believe that it is wise to allow the best season of the year for doing this important work, to pass unimproved; that the State Missionary may spend his time in the suburbs of Chicago.

EDITORIAL JUTTINGS. Our first article in this number of our MAGAZINE, "The Russell Lecture," is taken from the Christian Leader, of Boston. We hope that all of our readers will be sure to read it.

-That religion is worth nothing which is not a matter of abiding principle, which does not seek the truth, keep the truth, and live the truth, by thinking truly, speaking truly, and acting truly.

-Dr. Schaff says that the New Testament has a Greek body, a Hebrew soul, and a Christian spirit, which rules both.

-Dr. John Foster asks, in 'the 494 entra in his Journal-" What then shall we think of that theology which repre sents the men whom God has made most like himself, as exulting forever and ever in the most dreadful sufferings of the larger part of those who have been their fellow-inhabitants of this world?"

-Rev. Dr. Guthrie says, that "St. John speaks of Jesus Christ, as "the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." The whole world. Ah! some would say, that is dangerous language. It is God's language-John speaking as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. It throws a zone of mercy around the world. Perish the hand that would narrow it by a hairsbreadth."

-It is obvious, that true religion and learning have always flourished and fallen together, and must continue to do so to the end of time.

-Rev. George MacDonald says that it may be an infinitely less evil to murder a man, than to refuse to forgive him. The former may be the act of a moment of passion-the latter is the heart's choice." --In 1826 the Genessee Branch Universalist Association of New York State -voted to disapprove of all titles, but those which the Scriptures apply to Christ's first disciples.

-The Poet Burns says in a letter written in 1789--" I trust that in Jesus Christ,

shall all the families of the earth be blessed, by being yet connected together in a better world, where every tie that bound heart to heart in this state of existence, shall be, far beyond our present conception, more enduring."

-Whether true or false, the Bible is our all, it is the only redeeming agency in the world-the only word that ever sounds as tho' it came from the other side of the waves. If we lose it, we are lost.

-Lord Bacon says 'All the crimes on earth do not destroy so many of the human race, nor alienate so much property, as drunkenness.'

-Professsor Stuart, in speaking of the variations in different Manuscripts of the Hebrew Scripture, says: All of these variations taken together, do not change or materially effect any important point of doctrine, percept, or even of history.

-Rev. J. G. Pike: 'How awful will be that wrath, when love is changed to rath; and mercy to vengence?' Can God change? May his love change to wrath, and his mercy to vengence? Who believes this?

-Life is the test of learning, character is the criterion of knowledge. Not what a man has, but what he is, is the test after all.

-We admire the remark of Humboldt that "The modesty which forbears to judge of what is above us, is a quality far too noble to be found very often."

-We often forget that death is not a break in existence; it is but a transition from one form of our finite existence to another.

-The value of a State Convention Church must depend, very largely, we think, upon the State Missionary's activity and the frequency of his visits to different portions of the State where no local organizations exist, and where members reside.

-The newspapers say that Rev. J. T. Davis, of the M. E. church, has been arrested for criminal libel, for substantiat

ing the charge of Dr. Kate Bushnell, in relation to the Wisconsin dives, where girls and women are forcibly detained for purposes of prostitution, and there is some ground to hope, that the truth may at last be known about those hells of depravity where young girls have been made insane, by their barbarous treatment.

THE MIRACLES OF JESUS. The Unitarian Herald (of England), has the following in regard to the mir acles ascribed to Jesus Christ:

66

Let any one who desires to understand the truth on this important point, take a pencil in hand and draw a line of erasure through every verse of any one of the Gospels which is either part of the direct record of a miracle, or of a narrative necessarily implying hat some miracle had been performed. Having done this, he will find that no connected or intelligible history of Jesus, or his ministry, is left at all. There may be a few detached sayings or incidents, but no history whatever; and inasmuch as the only histories of Nazareth are contained in the four Gospels; if these be thus expunged (as they must be by expunging his miracles) we have literally no original or contemporaneous record of his ministry at all."

The simple truth is, that Jesus either performed the miracles ascribed to him in the New Testament, or he was an imposter, and unworthy of belief. For he said, "IfI do not the works of my father, believe But if I do, if ye believe not me, believe the works."

me not.